So what’s new in the world of EMEM historiography? The French are on the attack.

Sure, English historians continue to dominate the fiscal-military side of the ledger, as well as war-and-society topics. And, yes, the Germans continue their obsession with the Altagsgeschichte (everyday history) of the Thirty Years War. Italianists are even paying more attention to the Wars of Italy of the 16th century. Germanic scholars, both German and Dutch/Belgian, seem a bit more interested in the diplomatic history of these early modern wars as well. And even Spanish scholars are starting to write about their own wars from the period. And there are actually quite a few scholars working on those Terrible Turks as well, from what I can tell. But don’t worry, English-language collections still tend to serve as the default smorgasbord of different regions and decades, by scholars from around the globe.

Finally, though, French historians have embraced their inner giant. If you’ve read my past bibliography posts, you’ve already seen this trend in my shift to including foreign-language – primarily French-language – publications. And this trend has only increased over the past few years, now that there’s a cadre of young (and older) French historians who have rediscovered the early modern age in all its martial glory. And they’ve got the conferences and edited collections to prove it. I’ve already mentioned a few of the recent publications over the past few years, but I’ll briefly re-cite them in one place, so you can see the trend:

If I were to include the chapters in these collections, they would easily number a couple hundred from several dozen authors. But just from the above titles and contributors, you can see the progression:

from doyens of the French historical establishment – André Corvisier, Jean-Pierre Bois, Jean Bérenger and Jean Chagniot most prominently – being festschrifted at the tail end of their careers

to a whole host of mid-career converts and newly-minted disciples. The military history of early modern France, and of Louis XIV’s age in particular, is definitely on the rise.

Just as interestingly, the French interest in war and society, evidenced in the early (1960s-1970s) works of scholars like Corvisier and Bois, has subsided a bit, many following the path of Corvisier, who turned, by the 1980s, to a more focused look at the sharp end of war in his La bataille de Malplaquet 1709: L’effondrement de la France évité (1997). After a brief flirtation with the Military Revolution, French military-historical scholarship of the past two decades has specialized in case studies (primarily of France) and topical analyses (primarily of France). Cultural and social topics continue to receive attention, bien sûr, but what’s striking is how traditional military subjects have also seen a renaissance. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the Service historique de la Defense is supporting such researches with conferences and publication assistance.

This return to histoire événementielle appears a reverse image of what’s happened in the U.S. over the same timeframe. Even though Hervé Drévillon attributed the recent increase in early modern French military history to the influence of John Lynn’s Giant of the Grand Siècle (1997), Lynn’s own work has gone in a somewhat different direction ever since (after, it should be noted, beginning in the French Revolutionary armies). After his 1999 narrative of the Wars of Louis XIV, he shifted gears to works on women in early modern armies, just finished a book on modern terrorism, and is currently working on a broad history of surrender. This, I think, is more than a single example of a declining interest in the details of EMEMH among American academics: there are, to my knowledge, only a handful of young American scholars focusing on the period of 17C-18C European warfare (defined broadly), much less traditional military history (however that’s defined). And several of these focus much more on the later 18C into the Revolution.

Perhaps that’s not surprising, since I’d be hard-pressed to identify more than a handful of Ph.D. programs with more than a solitary European military historian (again, defined broadly) who could serve as advisor. I don’t mean to restart the old flame wars of ‘whither military history?’ and cast blame and rend garments, other than to suggest that, perhaps, the golden age of American students of EMEMH in the 1980s to late 1990s, advised by scholars like Joe Guilmartin, Geoffrey Parker and John Lynn at Ohio State and Illinois, where we had a dozen or more graduate students all working on the same general area, was an unsustainable deviation from the norm – unless you’re an American doing American history, or at least doing modern history. Maybe structural and institutional factors helped re-establish the normal state of affairs: the brutal job market for History Ph.D.s over the past several decades (or more!) certainly hasn’t helped matters. Last statistics I saw from the American Historical Association, a few years back, estimated about 1%-2% of academic historians were self-declared “military” historians, perhaps a bit more than the number of academic “diplomatic” historians. Perhaps it’s only natural, as well, that national history dominates a country’s historiographical interests, even in as large a country as the United States.

But back to the point: French military history is on the rise, and it’s hardly a surprise that they are focusing on their own nation’s martial past. In case we needed further evidence of the rise of EMFrenchMH, and of the concomitant necessity to read French, we can add one more publication to the above list, an edited collection which includes some familiar faces, as well as some new ones.

I’ve been writing up personal summaries of our recent trip to Vienna-Salzburg-Munich (and sprinkling them with photos off the web, which are usually far better than what we can manage), lest the memories fade from view too quickly. Pursuant to this task, I started looking up a bunch of early modern artists’ works in Google image search. Concurrently, my RSS feed alerted me to Amy Herman’s Visual Intelligence, which I acquired and have been reading with interest. In a suitably artistic state of mind, I thought I’d look up the Frick Collection (where Herman worked), just to see what kind of museum it was. Turns out, it’s in New York City (a few hours from me), and has some early modern works. So on a further whim, keenly aware of the fortuitous timing that allowed us to see the ephemeral Feste feiern and Kaiser Karl V erobert Tunis exhibits in Vienna, I checked to see what special exhibits the Frick had coming up. And, lo and behold, I find this exhibit, starting July 12 and running through October 2: Watteau’s Soldiers: Scenes of Military Life in Eighteenth-Century France. The description of the exhibit:

It would be difficult to think of an artist further removed from the muck and misery of war than Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), who is known as a painter of amorous aristocrats and melancholy actors. And yet, early in his career, Watteau painted a number of scenes of military life. They were produced during one of the darkest chapters of France’s history, the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14), but the martial glory on which most military painters trained their gaze held no interest for Watteau. Instead, he focused on the most prosaic aspects of war — marches, halts, and encampments. The resulting works show the quiet moments between the fighting, when soldiers could rest and daydream, smoke pipes and play cards.

Watteau’s soldiers chilling’ at a Valenciennes gate

Presented exclusively at The Frick Collection in the summer of 2016, Watteau’s Soldiers is the first exhibition devoted solely to these captivating pictures, introducing the artist’s engagement with military life to a larger audience while exploring his unusual working methods. Among the paintings, drawings, and prints will be four of the seven known military scenes — with the Frick’s own Portal of Valenciennes as the centerpiece — as well as the recently rediscovered Supply Train, which has never before been exhibited publicly in a museum. Also featured will be thirteen studies of soldiers in red chalk, many directly related to the paintings on view, as well as a selection of works by Watteau’s predecessors and followers, the Frick’s Calvary Camp by Philips Wouwerman among them.

An accompanying book by Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow Aaron Wile, published by The Frick Collection in association with D Giles, Ltd., London, will be the first illustrated catalogue of all Watteau works related to military subjects.

So if you’ll be in the region this summer, make some time to check it out. I know I will. And if you can’t, at least consider checking out the catalog. Hopefully it’ll explain why Watteau’s short career should be divided into “early” and “late” works.

I’ve commented before on how impressed I am when I read old French history from the 1970s (e.g. here). I just happened across another example as I tracked down a classic book that I’d seen cited on occasion, but had never actually looked at. And this is what I find on page 144, a map indicating how widely commentary on the 1214 battle of Bouvines spread in various medieval accounts:

This map includes a few different point and area symbols (mostly nominal and ordinal data), and is, to my mind, as interesting for the questions it raises as what ‘argument’ it makes. But that’s what good visualizations should do, encourage us to dive into the details.

And if you really want to know what I think about visualizing historical information, and have an extra hour or two, I pontificated on the subject here.

* Yes, I know, it’s the English 1990 translation and not the 1973 French original. But I don’t have a massive research library at my beck and call, so it’ll do.

Oh, don’t worry – I’ll spare you the checklist, but I’ll belabor you instead with what I’ve learned (and why I didn’t learn it sooner) over the past year.

But if you’re a busy person, the TL;DR version: there are a lot of French scholars of early modern military history, particularly of Louis XIV’s reign. And I’m giving you a bibliography, for free.Read More…

I don’t know if it was true in your family, but in my childhood the final items to be opened on Christmas morning were the stockings, hung by the chimney with care. I never understood why such care was taken, since it was usually filled with disappointing little items: an apple or orange, maybe candy, and usually some kind of cheap little flashlight or something. It was, in other words, never Boba Fett’s Slave I spaceship.

So consider this selection on the French national character from an English newspaper your 2015 stocking stuffer:

The following Letter has been sent by an English Officer, a Prisoner in France, to his Friend in England; dated Jan. 20. N.S. [1709]

Sir,

Pray let me know how the World rubs on your side, and I here pay you before hand, and give you an Account of Rounds and Squares on this side, and how we fadge [i.e. fare]. Know, then, my Friend, that the Weather is extremely nipping and cold: a mighty hard Frost and deep Snow; which is so severe, that several Poor, both Aged and Children, are daily found dead, as well without as within doors; And what’s yet more remarkable, three Post-Horses are lately arriv’d at their usual Stages, with their Mails, and each has brought with him a frozen Gallican Mummy as cold as Bethel’s Charity, and as dead as Poor Jo. Hains. In one of the Hospitals for Natural Children, there were found dead, this Morning, Nine of ’em, which perish’d by the excessive Cold. There is here also great variety of devouring Beasts, and particularly the four legg’d Wolves I shall here mention, whose ravenous Nature has been very often shewn, since this hard Weather, griping Want having made ’em break thro’ all Bounds of Fear or Respect; for they make no manner of distinction between their two or four-legg’d Brethren, but without any Ceremony, seize on ’em, as they tumble in the Road: Within these four days, they have devour’d three or four of their Brethren, ally’d by Principle, tho’ not by Shape or Number of Feet. In short, Thro’ the miserable Estate of the heavy-burden’d and deplorable Inhabitants, and the Keenness of the Times, we are furnish’d, every Moment, with some wretched Accident or other, that’s capable of moving Pity in any one that has a Heart harder than themselves, if such a one were, possibly, to be found. This is but a very slight Touch of their Sufferings, nor dare I tell you more. but be pleas’d to take along with you the Temper, Manners, and Nature, of the Beasts. They are begot dancing, come dancing into the World, continue the same during their Abode here, and many (tho’ all ought) go dancing out; Gallantry is here in Perfection; for the Husband makes the Wife’s Spark his Friend; and she chuses his Miss for her Confident. Their Children are taught to sing, before they can speak, and to dance before they can walk; and as they grow up, the Boys are educated in the Arts of Gasconading, Blustering, Lying, Cheating, Infidelity, Inconstancy, Levity, Fickleness, Gaming, Swearing, Whoring, Bullying, cum multis aliis, &c.

These are reckon’d Accomplishments and Nice Breeding, among the Generality of them. Honour, Honesty, Truth, Justice, and Sincerity, have been, long since, banish’d this Realm; and they have plac’d in their stead, Baseness, Dishonesty, Falseness, Treachery, and Ingratitude. They have made it Death, without Benefit of Clergy, to any that shall be found with the Five former Principles, in any other Manner or Shape whatsoever, excepting the Name of ’em, and the bare use of them, for a Mask to hide their Villany, as a poor Whore makes use of one, to hide her Ugliness. Their Courage may be justly compared to Snow falling in August, which the warm Sun soon dissolves; or, like a brisk Spark flying out of a Wood-fire, which gives two or three little Bounces, and disappears immediately. Even so does their Courage, at the first Flash in the Pan; it sinks and thaws into their Poster[ior]s. I cannot, however, but highly commend the Wisdom of their State, in forbidding Duelling. ‘Tis a wonderful Piece of Policy, to hide Cowardice, and, at the same time, save their Credit; this takes effect at Home: But, when in the Field, I’ll leave the World to judge, who have often seen their mighty Mountains dwindle into a Mouse T[ur]d. They are all Noise and Emptiness, the just Emblem of a Drum; very Credulous, full of Compliments, Flattery and Lies. The Commonality are very Bigots in Religion, the Gentry have none at all. They all have a might Opinion of their Nation and People, and think none in the World comes near ’em, in any thing whatsoeer; and, if any commendable thing is found in any other Nation, as to Arts and Sciences, &c. ’tis all owing to them; for they esteem all other Nations and People, that arenot educated in, or by theirs, Brutes and Monsters, and hate ’em, tho’ they profess the same Religion, and are principl’d as hopefully as themselves. They all extol and value themselves above the rest of Mankind. They are all Shew and Vapour, and will have a lac’d Coat, tho’ all the rest of the Moveables are not worth a Sous Marque; and a good Shirt on one of their Backs, is as great a Sight, and as hard to be met with, as an honest Man in the City. They make no manner of Allowance in their Apparel, as to Age; for they are as gaudy at 80, as they were at 10 Years of Age. The Girls are exquisitley well instruct in the Arts of Coqueting, Jilting and Gaming. They are taught to knit, but not skill’d in Housewifery; and all naturally throw themselves on their Backs, like a Cat in a Skirmish, and labour hard, Hip and Thigh, to nourish and subsist the rest of the Parts. In fine, From the Duchess to the meanest Peasant, all are Mercenary, and for Cash, will prostrate themselves &c. For there’s a certain wicked Itch or Gaming, that runs thro’ the whole Nation, and makes ’em as mad as a proud Bitch. They all pretend to have a Value for Strangers, and prefer them before their own Folks; But ’tis all Sham, and Cant, and Policy, in order to cull ’em of their Pence.

Ah Traitress! Ah Ingrate! Ah Faithless Mind!

Ah Sex invented first to damn Mankind!

Perhaps, you may guess, by these two borrow’d Lines, that my Mistress is unkind; but I assure you, you must guess again. I need not tell you of their small Faults; as that they are Lyars, Inconstant, Fickle, Frail, Lewd, False, Dissembling, &c. for these are the Grace the Generality of the Sex are endow’d withal. They all pretend to Wit and Criticism; and any one that speaks much, and laughs and sings, they will allow him to have a great deal of Wit; and if he dances and plays at Cards, he’s an accomplish’d Gentleman. Their Dress is Airy and Taudry, and as Frippery and Gugaw [gegaw i.e. trifles] in their old Age as ’twas in their Youth. They are nasty about their Feet and Legs, their Linnen very coarse, and commonly dirty, for in Summer they wear a Shift 4 or 5 Weeks and in Winter 6 or 7. They are extream sluttish in their Houses, as well in their Bed-Chamber as Kitchin. In each Story there’s a Privy, and for the most part at the Entrance, in order to confound the rest of the more odious Stinks; so in short from the Cellar to the Garret, Including Madam, you have a continued House of Office. In brief, they are all Tongue, all Devotes, all Hypocrites, and all Whores, and not a thousandth Part so fair, as they are false, and were my Letter as large as a Book called Theophrastus, it wou’d scare contain the Faults and Vices of the Nation. As for Perfections, know of none they have, except in all I have tax’d ’em with. If I could find but one honest Man in the Kindgom, I’d alter my Tune. What I’ve here inserted, is not by Hear-say, but by woful Experience.”

And then, a week later, a rebuttal to an unidentified objector:

London, Feb. 4

“Having inserted in our Paper of Monday last, a Letter that came lately from France, wherein a Gentleman of our Nation, drove thither by evil Fate, had a mind to divert himself and his Friend with a Character of the French People; it was no Matter of Surprize to us, to see, since, in a certain Paper scarce Publick, and unworthy Mention, the weak Efforts of some Paltry, French Scribbler, to wash the Blackamore white, and vindicate his Nation from a Character due to the Generality of ’em.

The Writer of the Supplement hopes he may be, therefore, excus’d, if, to keep himself out of Idleness, he bestow Two or Three cursory Remarks on the Trifling Reflexions of a Person, whom, out of Love to all true Britains, he can’t suppose to be any better than a Frenchman.

For, Who else, in the Name of Wonder, ever esteem’d it an Honour, to have liv’d, some time, in France? I know, ’tis no-wise injurious to a Gentleman’s Reputation, to say, he has travel’d in, or thro’, France, (nor more, that he has gone thro’ Wales or Yorkshire;) But it could never, certainly, enter into the Heart of a Native of Great Britain, to account it any Honour to have liv’d in France, where wooden Shoes are so great a Fashion!

But yet it might, too since the French King could find out no other Expedient to restrain the Warmth of his Fighting People, than the Law against Duelling. They are so Fighting, it seems, that Foreigners must think it an Honour, that they can live among ’em in whole Skins! – Why truly, I am afraid our Gentleman’s Mirth rows’d your Passion, Monsieur; and that, while your Blood was yet boiling hot, you took upon you to prove the French a Brave People. For, certainly, no Man, at least, no Englishman, that has the Use of his Reason, would ever pretend to do it, at this time of Day!

I must confess, ‘twou’d vex me, to be told, that my Countrymen are effeminate, and less than Women; But more so, to consider that they really are so. I would not be thought to reflect on particular Persons: There are, no doubt, some Brave Men, even among the French; For there’s no General Rule without Exception; But when I call to mind, how the Women at Villingen, in the Black Forest, kept out a little Army of the French, a few Years ago, by throwing Stones at ’em, I am apt to esteem ’em, in my poor Judgment, less than Women. What of the Conquests gain’d by your invincible Monarch, as you call him, in his younger Reign? ‘Tis notorious, that they were owing either to the Power of his Gold, or encroaching Treaties; and not won by Dint of Sword. When was ever the French Courage try’d, and not foil’d? Is it an Argument of the Bravery of the French Nation, That many Ages ago, the English beat ’em in open Field, tho’ the French were almost Three to One, took their King Prisoner [Crécy 1356], and conquer’d the whole Kingdom of France? And, where have they not had the Superiority of late? They were not so often beat, in the last War, I own; But, perhaps it was because they did not so often come to close Battles. And ’tis rather a Tryal of Superiority of Number, than of Courage, for Armies to stand at a Distance, and fire upon one another. It is, therefore, to the immortal Honour of the Duke of Marlborough, that, according to all our Accounts, his Grace has introduced a new Way of Fighting the French; His Soldiers stand the Enemy’s first Charge, but, allowing ’em no Time for a second, fall upon ’em Sword-in-hand: And, whenever the Confederate Troops come at ’em, in this Manner, the French surely run away. Witness the Battles of Blenheim, Turin, Ramelies, Audenard, and Wynendale; In all which they had the Superiority of Numbers, and Advantage of Ground. I am as far from lessening the D. of Marlborough’s Conduct and Abilities, as any Man; And I hope it will not be thought I do so, when I argue, That the French, in general, are not so form’d for Heroes, as that impertinent Writer would persuade People. His Grace has, more than once, seen the Finger of God, in defeating them in Battle; and as we all know the Superior Conduct of our Consummate General, so his Grace never fails to give all his Troops their Share of Superior Courage. To have done, therefore, with the Subject of French Cowardice, I declare That as often as I shall think of their late Defence of the Scheld, after so many Months Pains to fortify themselves on its Banks, I shall conclude, the Gentleman that wrote our Letter, did ’em no Injustice as to that Particular.

As for Monsieur’s Instance of their Courage in the Defence of Lisle; I look upon it to be of no manner of Service to him: For their Courage cannot be fairly try’d, when they are cover’d with Walls, and Parapets, and I know not what. The French King attributed the long Defence of that Place to the Bravery of the Mareschal de Boufflers, and Two or Three more General Officers, and not to that of his Troops, who call the Confederate Soldiers Devils, for Fighting; and his Most Christian Majesty himself lately declar’d, That (for the general) he did not know what to make either of his Generals or Troops. Such is their Martial Ardour!

Nobody will dispute with my Frenchman, but his Country may have bred fine Gentlemen, as well as other Nations: But I am a little in the dark, as to the Improvements the greatest Men in England owe to that Kingdom. No more do I understand, what he means by the Exercises and other numerous Accomplishments learnt by our Nobility and Gentry there. Mean time, I remember to have read somewhere, That ’tis a wrong Notion in our English Gentry, to begin their Travels in Holland, and end ’em in France; and the Reason alleg’d was, because it was the Misfortune of too many,

To bring French Vices and Diseases home.

To charge the French with Levity, would not have been unpardounable, it seems; But our Gentleman has affronted Monsieur, by reflecting on the Fair Sex! I confess, I never was in France, but have the Honour personally to know several French Ladies in England; and, I profess, if I had never thought of such an Epithet as Fair, for that (generally speaking) black Sex.

Thus far I have gone out of my way, to oblige you, Monsieur; for I am persuaded, you took pains enough to wipe off the true Character of your Nation, to expect me to do this Justice to myself, as well as to the absent Gentleman, who design’d you no Affront. For the rest, be assur’d, That hereafter I shall take no Notice of your Impertinence, but leave the Actions of your Nation to justify their Character inserted in the Supplement.”

Too many humorous bits to point out, but if you need more details on policy, cowardice, arrogance, dinting swords, skulking behind walls, and fickle dancing, you might just want to go buy yourself my latest publication.